The English 340 Bloghttp://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca
Fall 2012 - Winter 2013 :: University of CalgaryThu, 02 May 2013 20:04:53 +0000en-UShourly1Sensuality and Provençal Songhttp://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/04/27/839/
http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/04/27/839/#commentsSat, 27 Apr 2013 14:12:24 +0000http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/?p=839Continue reading →]]>No matter how many times I read John Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale,’ the second stanza strikes me as particularly beautiful because of its sensual expression and parallelism of the stanza that it follows. As we discussed Keats’ use of the five senses and contrasting opposites to emphasize key elements in his poem, I want to focus on the alternate sensuality found in the first 20 lines of the poem. Additionally, the nightingale’s presence within these lines will be exposed and examined.

Alternate SensualityKeats’ poem evokes strong romantic imagery. The first two stanzas of ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ appeal to the conventional senses of touch, sight and sound. However, I would argue an alternate spiritual sense is also illustrated.
Keats, poet and barman, offers up a series of eclectic drinks to the reader:

Hemlock: a sedative potion derived from a plant.

Lethe waters: a river in Hades, from which all those who drank would experience complete forgetfulness.

Hippocrene waters: another Grecian reference – a fountain dedicated to the Muses as it enhances poetic inspiration to those who would drink from it.

All of the above have mind-altering qualities in common, whether that be positive or negatively connoted to the poet’s intent. Hemlock and the waters of Lethe, both mentioned in the first stanza, are both mind-numbing agents whereas the latter two are mentioned in stanza 2 and have more enjoyable effects on consciousness. Keats describes his senses, relative to these elixirs, as: drowsy, numb, and dulled moved then to refreshing memories associated to nature and “sunburnt mirth” (14). Not one of these sensations can be affiliated to any of the five senses separately, but is more of an awareness of Keats’ state. Nonetheless, Keats’ description still fuels the readers sensual experience of the poem. Arguably, the growing positivity in the referred drinks reflect the acoustics of the poem as Keats listens to the nightingale’s song and begins to reminisce.

“Lavender Fields of Provence”

The Nightingale

The nightingale surfaces in the first stanza as the “light-winged Dryad” (7) brightening the poem’s somber tone like colour bursting from shadow. As she begins to “singest of summer” (10) in Provençe, the mood of the poem shifts and transitions into a new stanza. Arguably, it is precisely the song of the nightingale the evokes such memories of Provençe, due to the lively chorus of her song sounding similarly to that of *The Farandole. My favorite line, “with beaded bubbles winking at the brim, and purple-stained mouth” (17-18) suggests to me the winking, beady eyes of a nightingale, and berries she could be eating. The following lines “leave the world unseen, and with thee fade away into the forest dim,” (19-20) impress that Keats is drunk on memories, and wishes only to fly away with the bird that reminds him so fondly of those sweeter times.

]]>http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/04/27/839/feed/3Looking for a study break?http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/04/14/looking-for-a-study-break/
http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/04/14/looking-for-a-study-break/#respondMon, 15 Apr 2013 06:23:11 +0000http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/?p=826If you want to take a study break but not totally waste your time or get too distracted, this website lets you expand your vocabulary, while helping others.

]]>http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/04/02/friends-thesaurus-use/feed/2Words and Musichttp://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/25/words-and-music/
http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/25/words-and-music/#commentsTue, 26 Mar 2013 03:15:34 +0000http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/?p=796Continue reading →]]>Being interested, as I am, in the confluences of the arts particularly how literature and music work together I have come across a few interesting pairings and since I know that we are all looking for ways to respond to each other’s posts I thought I would throw this one into the mix and see what other poems have been successfully set to music, at least in the opinion of my classmates.

In addition to The Lady of Shalott, which I mentioned in an earlier post, Lorenna McKennitt has set Alfred Noyes’ The Highwayman to music. Noyes isn’t in the anthology but I recall this as one of the poems I had to memorize in school and Anne of Green Gables recited it for a contest in the book by the same name. I find the piece too long, but my daughter likes it a lot, so I include it here. McKennitt does a good job of evoking the Celtic music of Ireland which is where the poem is set.

One of the most successful pairings of poet and composer, apart from the financially successful but otherwise saccharine efforts of Andrew Lloyd Webber in Cats, was Benjamin Brittan and A.H. Auden. Brittan set several of Auden’s poems to music and the two actually collaborated to write the acutely ironic Tell Me the Truth About Love for Hedli Anderson, a cabaret singer. The collaborations are noteworthy in this context because they represent the ‘modernity’ of both the poet and the composer and are a good example of where 20th century ‘classical’ music was going. You can hear the dissonance and disconnection in both they lyric and the music.

The first is Tell Me the Truth About Love. (I apologize for the quality of the video) The poem is both funny and sad when viewed against Auden’s struggle to be accepted as a homosexual in a world where it was still illegal.

Some say love’s a little boy,
And some say it’s a bird,
Some say it makes the world go around,
Some say that’s absurd,
And when I asked the man next-door,
Who looked as if he knew,
His wife got very cross indeed,
And said it wouldn’t do.

Does it look like a pair of pyjamas,
Or the ham in a temperance hotel?
Does its odour remind one of llamas,
Or has it a comforting smell?
Is it prickly to touch as a hedge is,
Or soft as eiderdown fluff?
Is it sharp or quite smooth at the edges?
O tell me the truth about love.

Our history books refer to it
In cryptic little notes,
It’s quite a common topic on
The Transatlantic boats;
I’ve found the subject mentioned in
Accounts of suicides,
And even seen it scribbled on
The backs of railway guides.

Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian,
Or boom like a military band?
Could one give a first-rate imitation
On a saw or a Steinway Grand?
Is its singing at parties a riot?
Does it only like Classical stuff?
Will it stop when one wants to be quiet?
O tell me the truth about love.

I looked inside the summer-house;
It wasn’t over there;
I tried the Thames at Maidenhead,
And Brighton’s bracing air.
I don’t know what the blackbird sang,
Or what the tulip said;
But it wasn’t in the chicken-run,
Or underneath the bed.

Can it pull extraordinary faces?
Is it usually sick on a swing?
Does it spend all its time at the races,
or fiddling with pieces of string?
Has it views of its own about money?
Does it think Patriotism enough?
Are its stories vulgar but funny?
O tell me the truth about love.

When it comes, will it come without warning
Just as I’m picking my nose?
Will it knock on my door in the morning,
Or tread in the bus on my toes?
Will it come like a change in the weather?
Will its greeting be courteous or rough?
Will it alter my life altogether?
O tell me the truth about love.

A more serious, and moving piece is Now the Leaves are Falling Fast. In it Auden explores the heartache of trying to be a couple in an England that would not accept homosexuality. The images are stark and barren with little sense of hope.

Now the leaves are falling fast,
Nurse’s flowers will not last;
Nurses to the graves are gone,
And the prams go rolling on.

Whispering neighbours, left and right,
Pluck us from the real delight;
And the active hands must freeze
Lonely on the separate knees.

Dead in hundreds at the back
Follow wooden in our track,
Arms raised stiffly to reprove
In false attitudes of love.

Starving through the leafless wood
Trolls run scolding for their food;
And the nightingale is dumb,
And the angel will not come.

Cold, impossible, ahead
Lifts the mountain’s lovely head
Whose white waterfall could bless
Travellers in their last distress.

If you are interested, I recommend that you have a look at Brittan’s Peter Grimes. It is a complete departure from the operas of the 19th century and a great window into the way Englishmen viewed the world in the wake of two world wars.

I would be interested to hear about any other examples of poetry set to music that you have come across- from heavy metal to rap.

I know we’re not quite on The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock yet, but I’m really excited to get to it because it happens to be my absolute favorite poem. I remember studying it in high school and my English teacher played this song for us. I’m sure we’ve all heard it at some point, but I just thought it was cool to know that the song that I thought was totally overplayed on the radio when I was a kid, (I remember not liking it, and always changing the station when it came on), is inspired by T.S. Eliot, (which is now obvious to me considering the title of the song).

I couldn’t help but mention that the “Community” episode we were talking about in class is playing on the comedy network right now! Funny coincidence!

]]>http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/24/community-episode-remedial-chaos-theory/feed/0The Gulfhttp://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/20/the-gulf/
http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/20/the-gulf/#commentsThu, 21 Mar 2013 01:47:58 +0000http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/?p=774Continue reading →]]>For my close reading I will focused on a short paragraph about marriage. I’m a sucker for love stories, even failed love stories, so one of the most intriguing parts of the novel for me was Clarissa’s relationship and history with both Richard and Peter. I love the complexity of the relationships, romantic or otherwise, in Mrs. Dalloway. They tend to be fluctuating and ambivalent, which is an excellent reflection of human nature and the way we ourselves interact with one another.

The following passage is on page 2223:

“And there is a dignity in people; a solitude; even between husband and wife a gulf; and that one must respect, thought Clarissa, watching him open the door; for one would not part with it oneself, or take it, against his will from one’s husband, without losing one’s independence, one’s self-respect—something, after all, priceless.”

This passage does an excellent job of summing up some of the significance of the novel. Woolf wants to show the shared experiences between people (the entire narrative is created by the unknowing links that people have) and yet the “solitude” or the “gulf” they feel as a result of being unable to connect in the conscious, tangible ways that they desire. Despite any closeness these people might share, they are still very much stuck in their own bodies and their own concerns. They will never be able to know what the other is thinking or feeling despite the curiosity and even eagerness they sometimes experience. Each character seems to feel the weight of the human experience as an individual one. When reading this book this gulf that they are all unable to cross has a palpable presence.

The preceding passages include Richard determined tell Clarissa he loves her, out of jealousy of her past relationship with Peter Walsh. As he walks through Green Park (page 2220) he thinks to himself “For he would say it in so many words…Because it is a thousand pities never to say what one feels.” But once he arrives he is only able to give her flowers and assures himself she “understood without his speaking”, having no clue earlier she was questioning the choices that led her there.

Clarissa’s missed connection with Peter, followed by a too brief to be satisfying moment with her husband, causes her to contemplate solitude in a marriage and even justify it to herself. I mentioned earlier in class that I believe Clarissa is restless, and trying to assure herself of her ordinariness and contentment with life. This is yet another section in the text where Mrs. Dalloway rationalizes her restless loneliness (loneliness seen through her jealousy involving Richard and Elizabeth, and her interaction with Peter). It appears to be true that she highly values her independence, and is suggested at various points throughout the text that this influenced her decisions in the past. On page 2221 Richard acknowledges that she married him for support, and this could arguably be seen as support so she has her independence, the opposite of the life fidgety, intimate, and unpredictable Peter offered. But that also doesn’t change the fact that Clarissa is lonely in a marriage characterized by a gulf, highlighted by her passionate ambivalence towards Peter.

It is not only revealing about her marriage, but also her character. Clarissa views this separation or gap between people as “dignity.” It is dignifying to expect and allow space between people. Any relationship, even a marriage, to Clarissa, should not be characterized by claustrophobic intimacy. Her “self-respect” is “priceless,” her identity and sense of self is all she really has and she is unwilling to jeopardize that. It is suggested that even for love, the loss of freedom was not worth it. So while her marriage with Richard might be lacking, he afforded her the independence that she views as crucial to her survival. She is an admirable character in her resolve; Mrs. Dalloway knows her priorities and accepts her circumstance despite any dissatisfaction (though I was still hoping maybe she’d change her mind and leave with Peter).

Since Clarissa values her privacy so highly, she “would not part with it,” perhaps the discontent I sense stems not from her solitude but rather her inability to escape it. She has the space she desires, but consequently that also seems to be all she has. Her daughter is growing up and preoccupied, her husband has his career and social standing, and all her old friends (until the evening of the party) were far away, so she craves the social reassurance of lunch dates or political parties to fill the gap.

]]>http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/20/the-gulf/feed/5Virginia’s Violent Verbalizationshttp://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/19/virginias-violent-verbalizations/
http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/19/virginias-violent-verbalizations/#commentsWed, 20 Mar 2013 05:08:44 +0000http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/?p=772Continue reading →]]>I’ll start by apologizing for the alliteration, I’m not a fan of it myself but it fit so well with such an odd letter that… well… I had to.

Down to business! I’ve decided to have a look at a particular paragraph from Mrs. Dalloway which I found very exciting. I’ve left my textbook at school, so I’m using a PDF copy of the book (which I’ve cited at the bottom of this post, if anyone wants to pull it up, just go to the link and download the PDF), so my citations will not match up with the textbook (clearly).

I’m looking at this paragraph (pp 9 in the PDF):

“It rasped her, though, to have stirring about in her this brutal monster! to hear twigs cracking and feel hooves planted down in the depths of that leaf-encumbered forest, the soul; never to be content quite, or quite secure, for at any moment the brute would be stirring, this hatred, which, especially since her illness, had power to make her feel scraped, hurt in her spine; gave her physical pain, and made all pleasure in beauty, in friendship, in being well, in being loved and making her home delightful rock, quiver, and bend as if indeed there were a monster grubbing
at the roots, as if the whole panoply of content were nothing but self love! this hatred!”

I know I’m not supposed to put the passage down, but I think this is probably easier since I’m using a different version.

What is it that makes this passage amazing? For me, the beauty of this passage is in the diction and the metaphor. For me, this passage defines Woolf’s writing.

The dark word choice in this passage makes the image of hatred which she’s trying to describe come to life. Words like “rasping,” “brutal,” “scraped,” and “monster” all carry very violent and vivid (there’s that alliteration again…) connotations with them. Since she is describing hatred in this passage, Woolf has opted to liken the feeling to an all-consuming monster, which is also a violent image, and she has used these words to back up and strengthen her point. And her likening the soul to a forest, a dark and distressed one at that, what with it being full of horses and (in my imagination) dead leaves and twigs scattered about, made the hatred metaphor sink even deeper. The reader can almost feel the depth of darkness and evil that arises in the soul when such true hatred is felt.

I absolutely love when she uses these kinds of metaphors. If anyone has read another of her works, A Room of One’s Own, specifically the section “Professions for Women,” you will be familiar with her metaphor of violently murdering the angel in the house in order for the woman to have the freedom to embrace her voice as a person. This is an equally powerful metaphor, and just as violent.

The depth and power of this paragraph captured me while I was reading it. How she can make such a small thing, like an emotion, feel so all-consuming, violent, and ultimately real through such a simple thing as word choice is truly amazing. Every time I read her work, this is what draws me into the piece and what keeps me absorbing her work.

]]>http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/19/virginias-violent-verbalizations/feed/5More Mrs. Dalloway-esque examples!http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/18/more-mrs-dalloway-esque-examples/
http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/18/more-mrs-dalloway-esque-examples/#commentsMon, 18 Mar 2013 20:54:34 +0000http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/?p=768Continue reading →]]>After talking today in class about examples related to Mrs. Dalloway (like Run Lola Run and Community) that showed how intricately our lives are interwoven and how they can affect each other unintentionally, I found myself coming up with a couple more examples and I just thought I would share them.

I’m sure (or I hope) that most of you have read Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. If so, you will be very familiar with this:

Hermione’s time-turner. In the book and the film, we see how delicate time really is. Any single action can alter what happens in the future, and Hermione uses the time-turner not only to attend more classes than her schedule can handle, but she also is able to save Buckbeak from his untimely death by altering history. Everything Hermione did while going back in time worked in a domino affect and created an alternative outcome to what originally occurred.

The same sort of outcome happens in the movie series Back to the Future. When Marty McFly initially travels back in time, he accidentally attracts the affections of his own mother (which is very disturbing…). As he alters history simply by being present in a place/time he shouldn’t have been, parts of the life he once knew (like the house he grew up in) slowly begin to disappear, and he has to help his own two parents fall in love so that he will still be born one day.

One last example I thought of was the collective works of author Sarah Dessen. Most of Dessen’s books (which have been written over the span of 15 years) are based in the fictional town/area of “Lakeview”. Dessen writes the stories as if they are all happening simultaneously. Her characters cross paths throughout her novels because they all live in the same town, but they appear in a “cameo” sort of way. I’ve had to read her books more than once so that I could actually pick up on the appearances of the characters from other books, because she interweaves them so subtly you wouldn’t pick up on it if you hadn’t read the book that character was from. So basically she’s taken Woolf’s idea of Mrs. Dalloway, and instead of writing in a continuous flow of streams of consciousness, she writes a complete novel about each person’s life that appears in her stories. You get to see how the main character in the story you’re currently reading perceives the presence of a character who to them is anonymous but to you, so much more. By doing this, it makes Dessen’s writing seem that much more realistic!

Anyway, I just love the idea that every single person you meet or action you carry out will put your life down a certain path. I’m sure I’m going to be noticing other examples of this everywhere now, but I just felt like sharing these three for now!

]]>http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/18/more-mrs-dalloway-esque-examples/feed/9Commentary on Mental Illness in Mrs. Dallowayhttp://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/18/commentary-on-mental-illness-in-mrs-dalloway/
http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2013/03/18/commentary-on-mental-illness-in-mrs-dalloway/#commentsMon, 18 Mar 2013 07:15:34 +0000http://engl340.ucalgaryblogs.ca/?p=762Continue reading →]]>While reading Mrs. Dalloway, the one thing that found myself doing was trying to connect to Virginia Woolf herself. I found in fascinating that a writer who was able to describe simple things and mundane aspects of everyday life in such beautiful detail took her own life. Woolf suffered from bipolar disorder, and I think this novel is a testament to her suffering. Bipolar disorder is characterized by episodes of elevated mood alternating with a depressed state; I look at Clarissa Dalloway as the elevated mood, and Septimus as the depressed state. I think both are one in the same and both are written to represent the author herself.

Clarissa, as the “elevated mood” has an appreciation for life, and it is described in the second paragraph of page 2157, “For Heaven only knows why one loves it so, how one sees it so…” The sentence is written like poetry and it conveys a sense a beauty for her surroundings. Septimus is the contrast character to Clarissa. He’s not so much her exact opposite but a progression of her mood; from beautifying everything to a depressed state. He is what Clarissa’s character could become, but never does in the course of the novel.

At one point in the novel, Septimus’ “condition”, or rather lack-of condition is addressed; “Dr. Holmes might say there was nothing the matter. Far rather would she that he were dead!” (Top of page 2168). This sentence is a direct notion to mental illness. The idea that there is nothing actually wrong, and one is better off acting a certain way than being dead. What’s really interesting is that Clarissa and Septimus never actually encounter each other in the novel and that also speaks to Woolf’s internal struggle with her illness. The two sides of herself are always separate and there was never a middle ground where she could come to a sense of balance and normalcy. At the end of her party when she learns of the suicide, Clarissa reflects on Septimus’ death; “She felt somehow very like him-the young man who had killed himself. She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away… He made her feel the beauty; made her feel the fun.” (bottom of 2259). I think this makes it clear that both characters are one in the same and the characters are in fact a manifestation of Woolf’s struggle with mental illness.